Revelation, 1

1.A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him so that he could tell his servants what is now to take place very soon; he sent his angel to make it known to his servant John,

2.and John has borne witness to the Word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw.

3.Blessed is anyone who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed those who hear them, if they treasure the content, because the Time is near.

4.John, to the seven churches of Asia: grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, from the seven spirits who are before his throne,

5.and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead, the highest of earthly kings. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood,

6.and made us a Kingdom of Priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

7.Look, he is coming on the clouds; everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. Indeed this shall be so. Amen.

8.'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.

9.I, John, your brother and partner in hardships, in the kingdom and in perseverance in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos on account of the Word of God and of witness to Jesus;

10.it was the Lord's Day and I was in ecstasy, and I heard a loud voice behind me, like the sound of a trumpet, saying,

11.'Write down in a book all that you see, and send it to the seven churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.'

12.I turned round to see who was speaking to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands

13.and, in the middle of them, one like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a belt of gold.

14.His head and his hair were white with the whiteness of wool, like snow, his eyes like a burning flame,

15.his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of the ocean.

16.In his right hand he was holding seven stars, out of his mouth came a sharp sword, double-edged, and his face was like the sun shining with all its force.

17.When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me and said, 'Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One,

18.I was dead and look -- I am alive for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of Hades.

19.Now write down all that you see of present happenings and what is still to come.

20.The secret of the seven stars you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lamp-stands, is this: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lamp-stands are the seven churches themselves.'